


and the walls kept tumbling down in the city that we love

by dinglehorton



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-14
Updated: 2013-11-14
Packaged: 2018-01-01 13:47:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1044686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dinglehorton/pseuds/dinglehorton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles is pretty sure that Derek and Cora aren’t coming back to Beacon Hills. At least not anytime soon. He isn’t sure why that bugs him so much, but with things settling down, Stiles' dad knowing, Allison, Scott, and Mr. Argent on the same side for once, and no immediate dangers (Peter is always an immediate danger, Stiles chastises himself) lurking in the shadows Stiles doesn’t really blame them for wanting to hightail it out of California.</p><p>or, the one where Stiles feels like he's drowning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and the walls kept tumbling down in the city that we love

**Author's Note:**

> Set after Derek left in 3A. Title is from Bastille’s Pompeii. (For Reyna)

Stiles is pretty sure that Derek and Cora aren’t coming back to Beacon Hills. At least not anytime soon. He isn’t sure why that bugs him so much, but with things settling down, Stiles' dad knowing, Allison, Scott, and Mr. Argent on the same side for once, and no immediate dangers (Peter is always an immediate danger, Stiles chastises himself) lurking in the shadows Stiles doesn’t really blame them for wanting to hightail it out of California. He's only momentarily surprised that Peter doesn't go with them, but when he catches him hanging around, watching Lydia on more than one occasion he begins to understand why. Once a week Scott gets a "we're alive" text from Derek and every week Stiles breathes a sigh of relief. 

 

Scott's dad reasserts himself in their lives, annoying both Stiles's dad and Mrs. McCall. He somehow manages to get his boss to let him stay in town and “investigate” the murders. Stiles thinks it’s an incredibly bad idea to let Mr. McCall in on the secret about werewolves and alphas. And while Scott isn't idealistic about his dad anymore like when they were kids, there's still a part of Scott that wants his dad to stick around. 

 

Stiles just wants Agent McCall to go home before he disappoints Scott even more. 

 

The darkness around their hearts, at least Scott and Allison's, doesn't seem to affect their every day lives. Allison's was already darkening after her mother’s suicide, but her budding relationship with Isaac and her father has done nothing but lessen the blackness that was already there. Scott focuses on being a good alpha, for once taking a step back from Allison, but if Stiles is reading the looks the three give each other correctly then even that won't last long. 

 

Stiles is practically drowning. He's treading at the surface with his head above the water just long enough to suck in one deep breath before he's pulled under again. The darkness is suffocating. 

 

Three months after Derek and Cora go gallivanting off Peter saunters into Scott's living room and plants himself on the McCall's couch for Scott's weekly pack meeting. He shows up every week after, and while Stiles is disturbed by it Scott isn't even phased. Even Melissa doesn't seem to care much despite smacking him across the back of his head when he rests his feet on the coffee table. Lydia brings Danny and the twins and it's like one big happy, albeit dysfunctional, family. 

 

It's weird. And unnerving. Stiles keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop. For Peter to rip all of their throats out, for a vampire or a group of fairies or two headed unicorns to drop out of the sky. He keeps waiting for all hell to break loose like it usually does. 

 

He types out text messages, hundreds of them, to Derek at 3 in the morning, finger hovering over the send button for what feels like hours before he ultimately deletes the words.

 

Then almost a year after Derek has left, almost a year to the day of Stiles's moms death, while his dad is working a long night shift, Stiles gets drunk. When he wakes up the next morning, head throbbing in pain, he has a text. 

 

_I wish I knew. - D_

 

He furrows his brow and squints at his own text above Derek's. 

 

_How do you stop from drowning in the darkness?_

 

Stiles bites his lip and contemplates apologizing, contemplates telling Derek to ignore his text because he was drunk and that it didn't mean anything. But it didn't mean _nothing_. It meant something and wasn't it a valid question to ask?

 

 _Did running away help?_ Stiles types out, hesitating for only a moment before he hits _Send_.

 

The response is almost immediate.

 

_No._

 

~

 

Stiles doesn’t think he’s _supposed_ to be upset about Derek leaving, they weren’t the best of friends or anything, but he feels a bit pissed off that Derek didn’t even have the decency to say goodbye to someone who had saved his life on many occasions. He doesn’t hear from Derek after their short text conversation, but he doesn’t iniatiate another one either and he steers clear of all things alcohol.

 

Stiles plays it off as if he’s missing Cora; he _had_ saved her life (once) and they were forging some sort of friendship there for a minute (weren’t they?).  He sticks with that even when Scott eyes him closely; his best friend can be a bit clueless when Allison (and Isaac) is nearby, but he’s not completely stupid. This sure as hell _isn’t_ about Derek fucking Hale.

 

No way in hell.

 

(It _might_ be a little bit about Derek Hale)

 

Things settle, or as settled as they can get in Beacon Hills, for a little while. They don’t battle any crazed rogue alphas and for almost a year they don’t even come across another werewolf outside of Scott’s pack.  Until everything goes to hell and Peter Hale tries to slaughter Scott and Allison. He almost succeeds in killing Scott, and Allison manages to just barely escape Peter’s deadly claws with the help of her father and Isaac. It had been Peter’s plan all along to take Scott’s place. Stiles is the one to sit at Scott’s bedside for days, refusing to leave even when his father shows up and threatens to drag him out kicking and screaming.

 

(In the end his father doesn’t drag him out kicking and screaming, but mostly because Stiles can tell that the threat is an empty one.)

 

They find Peter two weeks later hiding out in Derek’s old loft, and Isaac rips his throat out, but Derek doesn’t come back. Stiles uses Scott’s phone to text Derek about the situation, but there’s no response. He supposes that Derek can feel the death, Peter was his pack after all, whether Derek liked it or not.

 

Once Scott is back on his feet he spends more time with Isaac and Allison than he does with Stiles. He doesn't even notice that his best friend is falling apart.

 

“I’m just trying to avoid my whole—“ Scott waves his hands around non-descriptly and sighs. “My mom and dad are doing this weird, avoidance dance around each other. It’s really freaking me out, man.” Stiles nods, feeling for Scott because he’s been there with him through everything, knows more about Scott and his father’s relationship than everyone else, including Scott’s mom. And even with the knowledge he’s stored away Scott chooses to distract himself with Allison and Isaac—which, Stiles thinks, is a whole other level of weird. He can’t tell who is dating who, and a few months after the incident with Peter, Stiles gets his answer after walking in on the three of them, still fully clothed, but clearly engaged in some pre-coital bump and grind. The ensuing conversation is awkward, he would expect it to at least be a little awkward, but Stiles is hurt when he finds out that it had been going on for _months_ without them thinking they could tell him.

 

“What did you think I was going to say, Scott? Did you think I was going to be disgusted?” Stiles asks, the darkness around his heart squeezing so painfully that his eyes water.

 

“No,” Scott huffs, scrambling to get off of Isaac’s lap (and wow that’s a weird thing to say, even in his head). “We were just worried how everyone would act.”

 

Stiles scoffs, and now he’s _really_ angry. He picks up his backpack that he’d dropped at the bottom of the stairs and turns to leave, “I’m not _everyone_ , Scott. Clearly years of friendship hasn’t meant as much to you as it does to me.”

 

The next day Lydia drops down onto the chair next to him, “Is it about there being three of them?” Stiles stares at her, mouth open for a good minute. “Gross Stilinski, close your mouth. She’s my best friend, of course she tells me everything.”

 

“Well at least that makes one of us,” Stiles snaps. “Congratulations on _your_ best friend trusting you enough to tell you about the threesome relationship they had started.”

 

“Stiles—“

 

“Screw this, Lyds, I can’t be here,” Stiles says angrily and begins to pack up his books. Once in the parking lot he drops his bag into the back of his Jeep and takes off towards the trail to the preserve, knowing that Lydia wouldn’t follow him and hoping that Scott wouldn’t either.

 

He finds a clearing near the Hale’s old house, sprawls out on the grass, and closes his eyes to the warm sun above him.

 

“You know there are wild animals out here.”

 

Stiles startles, for a moment, before realizing whom the gruff voice belongs to. He snorts, “Can’t be any worse than the wild animals running around my high school.” Stiles opens his eyes to find Derek, clad in his black leather jacket and jeans, sitting next to him on the ground. “Where’s Cora?”

 

“In New Jersey with some old friends of the family. She’s good there. I’m better here.” Derek says easily and Stiles hums in response and sits up to bump his shoulder gently against Derek’s in some sort of 'welcome back' gesture. “You ask for help.”

 

Stiles furrows his brow in confusion, “What?”

 

“Your question. You stop yourself from drowning by asking someone else for help,” Derek says, and nudges Stiles’s shoulder in return.

 

(Okay, so it’s definitely about Derek Hale.)

 


End file.
